What is a Title Register? #
The Title Register details of ownership information for a property or piece of land.
The Title Register document may detail:
- Title number
- Owner details
- Tenure (freehold or leasehold)
- Purchase price/value
A Title Register is one of the 2 main documents of title (Title Deeds) and consists of an up-to-date record of ownership, and includes the name and address of the registered owners. It also contains detailed information on easements (e.g. parking rights and access rights), restrictive covenants, mortgages, maintenance responsibilities, transfers, conveyances, lease agreements, tenure (e.g. freehold or leasehold), title number and purchase price.
A registered title provides the legal evidence that the land has been registered at HM Land Registry. When land is registered, it provides an up-to-date record of the legal ownership and other matters relating to the land or property in question.
What is on a Title Register Document?
The Title Register contains three sections broken down below;
Section A of the Title Register:
Description of the land with reference to the Title Plan.
Details of any exclusions from the title, such as mines and minerals particulars of Lease (if leasehold).
Agreements and declarations
Statement that the landlord’s Title is registered (if leasehold).
Matters that benefit the land such as:
- Easements
- Rights
- Privileges
- Conditions
- Covenants
- Party wall declarations
Section B of the Title Register:
- Class of Title
- Name of the owner
- Address for service of the owner
- Restrictions
- Notices
- Positive covenants
- Purchase price (or value declared)
Section C of the Title Register:
Refer briefly to information regarding;
- leases
- charges
- other interests adversely affecting the property
- restrictions relating to charges
- notices relating to charges
What is a Title Plan? #
The title plan consists of three elements of a registered title along with the register and any documents referred to in the register and filed at HM Land Registry. It confirms the position of the boundaries and shows the extent/curtilage of land owned, outlining it in red.
The purpose of the title plan is to support the property description in the register by providing a graphic representation and identifying the general extent of the land in a registered title. The title plan was previously known as the ‘filed plan’ and you may still see it described in this way.
All title plans show general boundaries unless the line of boundary is shown as having been determined under section 60 of the Land Registration Act 2002.
There are now a number of different types of title plan. They are usually put in to three categories:
Vector
A vector title plan is produced by a computer mapping system and all newly created title plans are done this way. The vector title plan is electronically created and stored.
Raster
A raster title plan is an electronically stored image of what was a paper title plan. Originally, all title plans were in paper form. All paper title plans have now been scanned, except those described in Drawer/canister title plan.
drawer/canister
A drawer/canister title plan exists in paper form only because they were too large to be scanned. They are filed flat in a drawer or held in a metal canister for protection. These title plans invariably belong to old registered titles.
What is on a Title Plan document?
The Title Plan document may detail:
- Extent of property owned
- General boundaries
- Title number
- Orientation & scale
- Explanatory notes – used in circumstances such as;
- An ‘island’ of land is excluded from a title
- Registration only includes part of a building
- Land removed from one registered title plan to another
Title Plans show the land in a registered title by red edging on the title plan. The red edging follows the inside of the line of the physical boundaries or the plotted lines of undefined boundaries surrounding the property. In exceptional circumstances, the edging may follow the outside of the line or the land may be shown by pink tinting (colouring). These methods may be used on very small areas of land, for example sites of walls, where the use of normal edging is impractical. There will always be an explanatory note in the property register for situations like this. Previously pink tinting was used on a plan to show the extent of the land in a caution, but this is now shown by red edging.
In the situation where;
- An ‘island’ of land is excluded from a title: It is usually shown by green tinting or hatching with a red edging around it with a note of this exclusion to the property register and the title plan.
- A registration includes only part of a building: for example a room over a passageway, an explanatory note will be in the property register and sometimes a reference on the title plan is provided for the area of land in question. For clarification, complex floor levels on a supplementary plan attached to the title plan. This is prepared at a larger scale or included with a deed which is referred to in the property register.
- Land is removed from one registered title plan to another: it will usually be edged with green and the new title number added in green. Another method used is green tinting without showing the new title numbers. In each case there will be an explanatory note to the register and sometimes to the title plan.